Dreams Under Glass
by Maiden-of-the-Elements
Summary: Forget helping mankind: help yourself. Keep nothing close to you but family: friends leave. But when you do nothing for others you miss the rewards. Some rewards may turn out to be your life's goal. And you just tossed it away.
1. Chapter 1

**Holds up sign: I can't talk right now, getting over 'Strep Throat', voice like old man. Am drowning self in steaming tea with honey.  
**

Disclaimer: Ed, Al, and the rest of Full Metal Alchemist do not belong to me; and don't sue me (what, do we have lawyers coming the columns now?) but I can't recall exactly who owns it.

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/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\ 

Edward collapsed on the soft bed face down and lay still, hoping he could suffocate himself this way.

The inn was familiar and modest, it was the same one they stayed in every time they were summoned to Central.

Well, technically, he thought, only _he_ was summoned to Central, Al just sorta came along for the ride.

Why couldn't they just forget about him for a little while, and let him be in peace. He didn't have time to waste dancing around for the idiots in Central. There were so many reasons to hate Central: the needless detour, speculating officials, rampaging murders. The king of all the nut jobs in the city: **Roy '**_**The Flaming Nutcase**_**' Mustang**.

If he EVER cornered that guy in an alley...

A nice, long, dark alley. He really deserved it this time, a little revenge on the egomaniac.

Always that guy smirked from behind his desk when he gave him an assignment, ready for the outraged righteous fit from yours truly. He must savor it, the brightest moments of his day.

He hoped he choked on it someday. Just keeled over dead.

Ed grinned savagely into the feather pillow at seeing Roy pulling an assignment folder out of his desk, then falling stone dead on top of it.

Where he got these ones, these twisted, idiotic,_** time-consuming**_ assignments Ed had no clue; God, or the Devil, could have handed them to him personally for all he knew. Neither of them seemed to be on his side, so it could be either.

Ed wallowed in his 'everybody hates me, the world hates me, god hates me' attitude like the sulking teenager he was.

"Brother?" the wooden door opened, Al clanked softly as he stepped into the room. Silence stood next to a question in the room.

"It's just some stupid assignment Al," Edward rolled over to his side and looked worn out. Al sat on his own bed, even if he didn't need one, to prompt him to continue.

"They need me to head a research team," he continued disgustedly, "the fact that I transmute without a circle is a popular subject of everybody higher up. They finally got somebody to do something about it; they were either going to have me as part of the research team, or use me like some sort of guinea pig."

"They can't do that big brother, they can't just take state alchemists and lock them away!" started Al, getting all edgy in the morals field.

"Ya they can Al. Remember the criminal facility? They were used like guinea pig, like animals, all for the convenience of human test subjects nobody would raise a fuss about. They just...disappeared." Ed stared out the window, remembering the two brothers, trapped in a suit of armor, and Barry the chopper.

Man, that guy had done a number on Al. Sicko, twisting his mind like that; it had taken weeks and a trip back to the Winry's to wake him up from the nightmare that he wasn't alive.

"I wouldn't let them," the young voice came low like a promise.

"Nevermind, come on Al, it's fine now," Ed tried to cheer up with a tired grin, trying to change the mood he had put his little brother in, "I'll just pretend to help them a little, lead them in circles. Pretty soon they'll get too bored or frustrated and just drop it. Government alchemists hate getting nowhere."

'_We should know_.'

"How long is it going to take Ed?" Al asked.

"Dunno Al. Maybe a month, maybe more, maybe less if I can help it," he shot a mischievous smile at the suit of armor.

"When does it start, we can't stay here forever, the philosopher's stone is still out there. Somewhere. I want to go back to my body, but it's not like we have a time limit so a month or two isn't going to hurt our search."

Halfway through the reply Edward's gaze turned thoughtful and worrying, it was turned inwards to the pain he felt, both for his brother and himself.

"It starts on the third, the beginning of October so everyone can arrive and have time to set up. I don't have to do anything to get ready," he crossed his arms behind his head on the pillow,

"I just have to show up."

**FIN**

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**Holds up another sign: If you love me, send me tea---I mean reviews!**

**Rating may change to M for violence, blood, gore, and stuff. **

**Letter to fans: For those of you reading this because I'm on your 'Author Alert', the reason I haven't updated my stories (especially my Transformers one) in a while is because I have gotten sick with said strep throat. Funny since I haven't been around anyone sick. And we all know how you just want to lie in bed and sleep when you are sick. Still had to go to the beginning of school though, sucked badly. Made a great impression when they called attendance though lol.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: You know the drill: I don't own them, I just make them dance. _

_-Coughs- Okaaaay...I've decided to keep these chapters short so I can update more often. I worked really hard on the second part of the chapter, so please leave a review._

_BTW: I'm not sick anymore! Hooray!!!!!!!  
_

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Edward stood inside the double doors of the silent building of research facility 5. The evenly spaced windows cast a lively glow on the white walls of the corridor that stretched the length of the building from front to back. 

"So this is what it looks like, to be a lab rat," he said, thinking about the state alchemists who chose to stay in base cities and isolate themselves in rooms with nothing but alchemy and books. Why couldn't they just come out and face life? Was it that hard for them? They were putting more then walls around them.

It cringed, the silence Edward desecrated with the smart tap of his boots. He wasn't carrying anything else on him, just his everyday clothes and red coat all freshly washed for the only first impression he would get to make with these people.

He made his way down the corridor, eyes on the brass plaques bearing numbers above the door frames. Counting silently he slowed his pace in anticipation and, with the clairvoyance of a seer, stopped in front of the door he knew would bear the numbers 27 above its brow.

Ed stood in the middle of a hallway to stare at a door.

Beyond could hold anything from the bright libraries of Shou Tucker's library to the dungeon-like rooms of ancient cities.

It might be worth it to just turn around and leave, play hooky for the day until they send out somebody to find him. Might even cause some headaches for Mustang; he grinned spitefully even as he disregarded the idea and reached for the doorknob.

The same moment he took a step to push the door forward, a figure pulled the door toward themselves on the other side. Ed went flying like a googly-eyed little doll into the body behind the door before he could let go of the doorknob.

The female on the other side didn't even have time to raise a hand in front of her in defense before they were both bowled over onto the floor. Lying on the floor there feeling a little out of the loop she sat up on her damaged elbows to get a better look around.

The head lying on her chest slid with a groan to across her legs.

"Owww..." Ed complained as he stuck a hand out to brace himself and lift his head. He didn't get his eyes past a women's chest. He was shoved by a pair of slender arms up and back hard enough that the back of his head hit the floor.

"OW!"

"What the hell were you doing! You you! PERVERT!," she grasped for suitable insults to cover her own shock.

"Aaargh," Edward complained under the noise, "I'm on the research team. Just who do you think you are? You're not a state alchemist," he took a closer look at her appearance while saying the last bit; she lacked the uniform worn by most state alchemists.

Her hair was like fine wood, polished, and with a subtle red glow. Bangs that were popular with teenage girls were cut and curled on a slant from the left side of her face. Her hair was up somehow that he could see spiky bits over the top of her head. She wore a yellow shirt under an open blue button up T-shirt over top of a skirt that had risen up over her knees in her fall. She had eyes like blue-green glass stared openly at him from a bare face as she opened her mouth.

"I don't work here. Who are you shortie?"

The entire world tensed up as the short fused in Ed started to ignite.

'_Shorty_,' he started to twitch.

'_Shorty_'

'_Shorty_,' he started to tremble as he swelled up like some terrible blond balloon.

"I...am...the...fullmetal...alchemist...not...TINY LITTLE MIDGET THE SIZE OF A FLEA!!!!!!!" he roared as he pointed his finger in her face billowing stream out his nostrils.

"Fullmetal?," she asked, totally nonplused, "you're supposed to be here already...I thought you'd be taller," she added nastily.

The unnamed girl rose to her feet and brushed down the hemline to where it was supposed to be. She rested the old-fashioned picnic basket on her elbow and met eyes with the scowling 'famous protege'.

"So shortie alchemist, Elizabeth Paige. Elli," she stuck out her hand to shake, which he ignored and she dropped at his stony face.

"As in Caroline Paige, one of the alchemists on your team. The Lightsnap Alchemist. Ringing any bells?" she asked his wary expression.

"There was a women named Paige in the list, are you saying that you're related to her."

"No, I'm saying I'm her–nevermind, I am her niece. She's my aunt," she supplied.

They sized each other up for a couple of minutes in awkward silence. Elli switched the basket from arm to arm.

"Well uh," she cleared her throat, "I gotta now. Sorry bout the door" she spoke to the ceiling.

"Bye," she said over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.

Edward stood looking at that door before going to meet his team thinking about how life was so unfair in making all the pretty girls his age weird.

/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\

The day had been spent completely uselessly in Edward's opinion. He had spent a good 3 hours just sitting in a chair after introductions telling the group the rehearsed story of lies he had created years ago for his entrance exam. They all took notes like a bunch of school kids with a lecturing professor.

Useless.

Caroline Paige appeared to be a fairly nice women; it turned out her niece brought her lunch most days from. Sounded nice, but she used that excuse to poke her nose in research and browse leisurely through the restricted books it turned out. Some of the books didn't even have duplicates in the main library, coming from private collections and rare finds and restricted to even most alchemists.

It was clever, he admitted, being seen everyday coming to and from the buildings with a well known excuse aroused no questions about her presence. Her aunt was an alchemist. Not bad, he wished he could have had such an excuse in place of an entrance exam and a leash.

There was not much to do the rest of the day, it was going to be boring anyway. Maybe he could snag a book and read while the scientists got their notes together. They'd probably start asking questions soon, that was going to be difficult; catching him with flaws in cross examining was the big red flag that he wanted to avoid setting up.

He walked out of the quiet orderly streets of the government maintained base and into the streets that were made up of a more pedestrian crowd. Thank god he didn't have to wear a uniform, he thought pausing in front of a bakery window, his reflection looking back at him in the glass.

He saw in the reflection a store with tables set out on the sidewalk, it looked like a bookstore. Ed's face lightened and he crossed the street with the hope of finding something interesting to read; although the military had probably picked it clean of any books pertaining to alchemy.

Giving thought to traffic he traveled up the street a little to a set of stop signs at a corner; even a good alchemist didn't like racing a car's speed for their life. He crossed the street and was then nearly blindsided by a bicycle traveling illegally on the sidewalk. It wasn't really illegal, just it seemed to most people that you traveled on the road instead of around other people.

"GACK!"

"AHH!"

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Elli was now dabbing at her bleeding knee inside the bookstore with a damp cloth graciously provided by the owner. She really wasn't trying to kill him- Edward that is- honestly. But how was she supposed to feel all sorry and humble after their little collision when he had immediately started yelling at her about suicide and assassination.

She had swerved when she saw him in her path, grated across the building edge and fallen off her bike. Now that just seemed unfair that he was the one throwing a fit. She supposed it came with being a big-shot alchemist; they were all into drama and making big fusses. He was kinda young looking to be part of the army's elite force though, short too. He was going to be hot when he grew up though; that hair if he kept it that way made her just want to run her fingers through it like he was a dog.

Elli liked dogs, but Edward reminded her of a terrier; all the bark of a mastiff while it gnawed at your ankles. Elli grinned a little at this idea and was tempted to tell him this. It was going to be fun to push his buttons since she had a familiar feeling that she was going to be seeing Edward much more then Edward was going to like.

She thanked the man at the cashier and instead of going on her way, went up the spiraling stairs to the second floor of the store to find Edward. She just wanted to hang out with him now; random, but she didn't feel like getting back on her bike with her stinging knees and going home yet. Two different sets of joints were not hurting today because of something connected to Edward.

Edward looked up to see a familiar head of hair rise above the floor climbing up the stairs; he slunk down farther in his chair in a futile wish to be left alone with his book. The girl was going to end up killing him! Small wonder he wanted her to just disappear; not to mention he saw her panties twice, something she probably didn't know and made it a little difficult to look at her unless she was speaking directly to him.

"Don't slouch"

He leveled her with _**a l**_**_ook_** before going back to his book; she was perching on the arm of the chair opposite his, watching him.

"You know I'm not trying to kill you. Really, I told you kid I swear."

"I'm not a little kid," he ground out.

"Come on, your...umm lemme see, you became an alchemist at 12...so you're..."

"Sixteen. Seventeen in February."

Elli's jaw hung open.

"Wow haha, I thought you were, like...thirteen," Elli tried to contain her mirth and turned her head to the side.

The vein in Ed's head started to make an appearance.

"And what about you, fourteen?" He asked archly.

"Not even close! Sixteen. Just this August," she inspected her nails proudly.

"Well you _act_ like a kid," he stung, finding nothing he could belittle her with her appearance. Maybe her eyes though; they were big and shiny like a little kid's.

"And I'm older," he said with superiority.

Elli decided not to make cracks about how at the same age she could stare him straight in the eyes.

**FIN**

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**Me: Hey Ed, what colour were they?!**

**Edward: -Turns cherry-**

**Me: That's a lovely colour on you...Let's see if I can make you do it more often :D  
**

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**_NatsuhiboshiStar I love youuuu_! **

**Review and I shall give you cookies and declare my love for all you nice REVIEWING people!**


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